The Parker-Hickman Farm is significant under National Register Criteria A and C as it embodies pioneer settlement and economic development; and the perpetuation
of traditional architecture and cultural landscapes in the southern Ozark Plateau. As a site which merits regional-level significance the farm, located
in a remote area of northern Arkansas, was first settled by relocated Cherokee people in the 1820s. By the 1840s pioneers settled on land alongside
the Buffalo River, where they established a very productive farm which incorporated elements of a traditional and perpetuated frontier. They implemented
longstanding patterns of occupying the best lands for farming and livestock raising coupled with access to important resources of wood and water. Continuously
used from the 1850s until 1982 (its period of significance) the intact fields, farmstead and associated garden and orchard plots, peas and lots, add
to a sense of contentment and security which has not been altered by the passage of time. Combined with nearly 130 years of continuous occupation the
farm possesses a significant amount of integrity. Dominated by a log house in age and quality of workmanship exemplary for the Ozarks, plus various
outbuildings the farm represents an adaptive enterprise based on conditions which evolved from a raw frontier to the relatively stable mid and late
twentieth century. As ownership and economic conditions changed, land use and the farmstead reflected those changes. However, intrusions such as specialized
farming, timbering, and building construction seem not to have fundamentally altered the integrity of landscape or architecture on this upper Buffalo
River valley farm.

One of the last regions to be penetrated by settlers after crossing the Mississippi River, the Ozark Plateau is an area dissected by ridges and valleys,
open glades and bottomlands. As old, eroded mountains the Ozarks are covered with a mixed hardwood forest which after 1920 had supplanted a mostly
pine covered landscape. Interspersed with numerous springs, creeks and rivers, it attracted settlers following the cession of lands by the Cherokee
in northwest Arkansas in 1828. Unlike many settlers moving up the Arkansas or Missouri River valleys, those who moved into the Ozarks typically had
to travel overland or wend their way up river drainages such as the White and its’ tributary, the Buffalo. Seeking land to support them in ways similar
to Tennessee or the Carolinas, these hillfolk settled land along the watercourses during the Old Ozarks phase (pre Civil war) that would be suitable
for agriculture. A perpetuated frontier, the Ozarks became an extension in place and time and as such the farms reflected that past. In selecting land,
early arrivals chose bottomlands, the best of the arable land. For the Parker family this meant land along Webb Branch just above the confluence with
the Buffalo River in Newton County Arkansas. Arriving during the early 1840s this extended family settled on land which would be incorporated into
the Parker-Hickman farm that evolved through the years until sold to the National Park Service in 1982. In 1847 William H. Parker filed entry on 40
acres and three years later he purchased 40 acres, both on the river floodplain.

Earliest settlers located the farmstead in a sheltered niche against ridges abutting a small flood plain formed by a spring branch and Webb Branch Creek.
Visually the site conveys a sense of security from the elements. As with earlier generations the spot least disrupted the environment while utilizing
topographical features to a maximum. In this setting during 1849 the family produced a good amount from a modest-sized farm, including 700 bushels
of corn, 100 bushels of oats and 80 bushels of wheat. Productive farms such as this used bottom and bench land fields, in contrast to latecomers who
found the best land taken and had to use hard-scrabble soils of the ridge tops.

Civil War skirmishes occurred on or near the farm. Following the battles of Pea Ridge and Wilsons Creek in the western Ozarks, a number of random guerilla
acts transpired, especially in 1864. According to oral tradition, the house served as a temporary field hospital after a skirmish on Webb (then Parker)
Branch.

A very significant portion of the farm is the intact farmstead that has structures built from the 1850s to 1955. This exemplary cluster of barns, sheds,
smokehouse, privy and house represents a cross-section and range of rural vernacular architecture in the original, location. It depicts the evolution
of a farmstead over a period of 100 years and is a representative and highly usual grouping of traditional structures almost perfectly preserved. The
principal structure, a log house, represents the most common house type of the southern uplands. In quality of construction the hewn log crib portion
exemplifies superior fitting together of Carolina-designed, half-dovetail notched logs. In the Ozarks a higher social status accrued to those who lived
in a hewed log house rather than one made of round logs. The side and rear additions make the structure a usual and traditional dwelling. According
to one close observer of rural vernacular architecture in the region, the Parker-Hickman house has a steeper pitched roof than those of German influence
in the northern Ozarks and is constructed of cedar logs, not traditional oak or walnut. The vertically laid sandstone chimney, proportionately much
larger than the dwelling, presents another dissimilarity within the region.

Other buildings of contributory significance to the farm illustrate the variety of activities from the 1850s to 1982. These include two barns, a corn crib,
smokehouse and privy. Constructed of logs or rough sawn lumber, they reflect the usual complement of buildings on an Ozarks farm, and demonstrate adaptation
to the topography and changing conditions of an agricultural economy over time. Very typical, and in a fair to good state of repair, they lend themselves
to the farm’s overall integrity. Non-contributory structures include a machine shed and a chicken house constructed in the 1950s however, they complete
an ensemble of structures which lend context to the farmstead, and to the farm as a whole.

Of considerable importance is the entire landscape with farmstead, extant fields (bench and bottomland), fencerows, roads, cattle gates, garden and orchard
plots, wooded slopes, and springs. Unlike most historical sites in the Ozarks the landscape is remarkably intact, and provides insights and evidence
spanning portions of two centuries of Ozark history; it also conveys a feeling or sense of contentment and security.

As agricultural production changed over time the Parker-Hickman farm reflects those trends. Initially the effort was simply subsistence but as more land
was put into production surpluses developed relatively soon (within ten years or less) which fueled a local market system. As a transportation network
of roads and later railroads developed, distant markets to the north and west materialized, although cattle droving into Missouri from the Arkansas
Ozarks occurred soon after settlers arrived.

In keeping with the overall Ozarks pattern, general farming continued at the Parker-Hickman farm, however after World War II specialization began, particularly
in livestock raising. Unfinished feeder cattle dominated the specialization and the last owners of the farm, the Hickmans, turned the fields into pasture
land for cattle production.

The Parker-Hickman farm reflects the entire range from subsistence to specialized agriculture; from settlement to the present day; from structures of log
to rough sawn frame ones which make up a range of rural vernacular architecture; and from Parkers to Hickmans, inhabited continuously from first settler
to the last occupant during the late twentieth century.

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The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program identifies, evaluates, registers, and preserves the state's historic and cultural resources and seeks to instill a preservation ethic in future generations of Arkansans. The agency also houses the Main Street Arkansas program, which works with local communities to revitalize downtown commercial areas.